And who’s to say that the ship was what was important about Delta Prime? Maybe there was a base there at some point, but was removed long ago, as per the Steltek’s “clean-up”, or was found by another race and “salvaged”, but the derelict was missed, forgotten, or left behind for whatever reason. Or maybe something else–even a “special” natural phenomenon–is still there besides, but just doesn’t show up on our “primitive” sensors.
And who’s to say Monkhouse didn’t lie in his “translation” (always found his willingness to trust a total stranger strange), or that Sandoval handed over the “genuine article” (always found his willingness to give it to a total stranger strange), or that Lynch . . .